November 27, 2010

I’m sure most of you have some TV commercial jingle tunes in your head, you know the ones; they strike a nostalgic chord when you hear the tune and you say to yourself “I know I’ve heard that before…what was it? Some cereal? Some kinda new gasoline? Some cigarette?

Now, with the Intar-Webs, you can immediately sate that desire to know the associated product with a few clicks.

I heard one of those tunes today as I was continuing to catalog some of my LPs. I came upon one of my favorites in the form of Phil Bodner’s famous Dis-Advantages of You on the Dunhill label. Give it a listen before you go on to the commercial clips:

Phil Bodner is the little guy on the cover. He was no schmuck, let me tell ya. He could make fun of his short self because he was a real mover in the NY studio music scene; he was also an accomplished musician (mostly woodwinds/reeds). The tune is from what were in the late 1960s the new Benson & Hedges 100s cigarette commercials. These commercials reveal a simple playfulness that seems lost today.

There’s something very comforting about cigarette TV commercials; they’re so self-assured, so confident, so pre-WARNING message.